Simon Illyan

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Simon Illyan is a character in the Vorkosigan Saga science fiction novels by Lois McMaster Bujold. He first appears as a lieutenant in the Barrayaran Space Navy, set to keep an eye on Aral Vorkosigan as he serves on the flagship of the invasion fleet sent to conquer the planet Escobar.

Illyan has had a bioelectronic device implanted in his head - an eidetic memory chip which records everything he sees and hears, and allows him to recall that information instantly. This was done as a whim of the Emperor Ezar, who learned of the technology invented on the planet Illyrica. Since most such implants had produced schizophrenia or worse in their hosts, it is clear that Ezar regarded Illyan as expendable.

In later stories Illyan, with the formal rank of Captain, is the head of the dreaded Barrayaran Imperial Security Service, or ImpSec. In the novel Barrayar, Illyan maintained this title of Captain as a tribute to his former boss Captain Negri, who was killed in Vordarian's Pretendership. However, his retirement pay is reportedly equal to that of a Sub-admiral. His successor, General Guy Allegre, ended that particular short-lived tradition.

Illyan's eidetic memory chip was essentially a constant recording device that allowed Illyan to remember every single thing he heard and saw in perfect detail, as if he had just experienced it. This amazing device added to his mystique as an administrator with ferocious attention to detail, despite a stunningly high 90% rate of chip psychosis among users. Miles Vorkosigan, who worked under Illyan as a special agent, surmised that Illyan's successful integration with the chip was due to his innate ability to deal with more than one plane of reality at once.

Illyan rose to the job of leading Impsec by being Aral Vorkosigan's right-hand man when the previous incumbent, Captain Negri, was killed at the start of Vordarian's War. However with Barrayar at relative peace, Illyan was able to move Impsec towards a more benign role on Barrayar while extending its reach to Komarr and beyond, though he had to deal with more than a few harrowing domestic events, such as the Yarrow Incident, in which ImpSec averted an assassination plot on Emperor Gregor Vorbarra by crashing a ship into the Imperial Palace.

In appearance, Illyan is slight and extremely unimpressive. As Impsec chief, he amplified this lack of presence to the point of virtual invisibility, the better to observe others. In his own domain, however, his air of blandness makes him seem all the more menacing.

Miles Vorkosigan first became a special operative under Illyan after it became apparent that Miles would never be able to work within a strict chain of command. The initial reasoning was to bury Miles deep within ImpSec where he couldn't cause trouble, but Miles startling success on the most difficult cases made him Illyan's top agent (especially in his position as "Admiral Miles Naismith", head of the Dendarii Free Mercanaries, a Barrayaran Crown Troop covertly posing as a mercenary fleet), despite his unnervingly roundabout and inventive methods that would drive Illyan to distraction. He became Illyan's greatest annoyance and most powerful asset.

Illyan's career ended when his memory chip broke down, causing him to relive random events from his past at random. Miles, installed as a temporary Imperial Auditor by Gregor, was able to get past the Impsec bureaucracy and order the chip's removal and revealed that Illyan's chip was sabotaged by his underling General Lucas Haroche, who wanted to become chief of ImpSec himself. Illyan made a good recovery but had to retire, since the sudden removal of the chip rendered his short-term memory severely damaged for a long time. Having lived like a monk, hardly ever leaving Impsec headquarters, he suddenly found himself alone and unemployed. Fortunately, Miles' aunt, Lady Alys Vorpatril, had always been fond of Simon Illyan, and during Illyan's breakdown, she was the driving force behind the investigating, having castigated the "three louts" (meaning Miles, her son Ivan and Emperor Gregor) for letting him suffer. When Miles invited Simon to convalesce at Vorkosigan House, the formidable Lady Alys took charge, first of the accommodations, then of Simon himself. (Memory)

Illyan currently lives in a nondescript flat, not far from Alys, and maintains an informal relationship with ImpSec. One of his most important role now is being a go-between between ImpSec and Alys, who maintains a covert role as a blind drop for deep-cover ImpSec agents who survey upper-class Vor constituents, as evidenced in the novel A Civil Campaign.